Perfect gardening weather ruled this week. There was even some rain for successful transplanting and weed removal. After the first rain, I started to pull out the evil invader, Asian Sword Fern. These ferns popped up in my garden a couple of years ago. I thought they were pretty, no longer. They have grown through everything and can only be pulled out if the soil is moist.
During the course of my weeding, I pulled out a Gru Gru Palm (Acrocomia aculeata) seedling. It is said this is what pygmy tribes in the Amazon use for poison darts. Covered in thorns, these sliced right through my leather gloves and they get bigger as the palm does. I hope I got rid of the thing, I did not plant it. I see these from time to time as a specimen palm in gardens, the appeal is lost on me. Way too sharp.
Our front garden is always under renovation as a small area has to be dug up once a year to service the septic tank. I question the wisdom of this design, but it has been made as accessible as possible. I put in a shelf of shells on a pizza pan with a pot of succulents behind and rocks on weed fabric that can be pulled out and replaced easily. I am not quite finished with this project.
The pot has Flapjack Kalanchoe, Graptosedum and a Miniature Pineapple. The Pineapple is pupping so this should look fuller later this summer. The access to the septic tank is under the pizza pan. I am probably the first person to ever write that sentence, and possibly use a pizza pan for such a thing.
.
I decided to direct seed a new crop of Basil for the summer into my herb pots, so far so good.
The Beautyberry is flowering luxuriantly, promising a bumper crop of purple fruit later this summer. This is native and a pollinator favorite, waiting to see some new butterflies.
Wishing the Six on Saturday crew a lovely gardening week and for more posts go and visit…. http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com.
The Shrub Queen 
That palm does look nasty. I have a fern like that from a plant exchange. I need to pull them up all the time and now I know why they were given away.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is the sharpest thing I have encountered in the garden. I would not give this fern away, wish it would go away.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Beautyberry is sweet and I like the idea of the pineapple pupping!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, the Beautyberry is one of my favorites,
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hearing your story and other similar ones about pernicious tropical plants that grow and reproduce rapidly makes me grateful for our cold winters that kill lots of invasives. However, we have enough Asian natives that don’t die like honeysuckle, bittersweet, bamboo, etc. I guess all gardeners have challenges. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes..a guy down the street just planted bamboo near his septic field.. it’s bad everywhere.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gru Gru Palm looks horrid! What part of it is shown in the picture?
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is horrid, that is the stem – this came up in a Rhaphis excelsa I have in the garden, probably from the grower. It was about 3 feet tall – covered in thorns from top to bottom, I cut it off below grade and pulled it out with the pruners. You literally can’t touch any of it. Horrid!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
So, it grows like a bamboo palm.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, it gets a single trunk ringed with thorns.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Is it something that is actually grown in nurseries, or is it just a weed all the way around?
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is grown in nurseries and I see them in gardens as kind of a curiosity. Have you seen Silk Floss Trees – really nasty trunks, see those occasionally here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They are rare here, but more common in Southern California. Several of them are (or were) in the median of Santa Monica Boulevard through West Hollywood. They look weird, but they were safely out of the way out there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
i quite like the fern, but i can see that rampant spreading would be annoying. that palm looks uninviting!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The fern is quite annoying I am trying a new herbicide on it. Non toxic, we will see. The palms grows a big trunk ringed with thorns eventually.
LikeLike